Brick Calculator – Estimate the Bricks and Mortar Needed for a Project

Calculate how many bricks and bags of mortar are needed for a wall, chimney, or other project by entering your wall dimensions and selecting a brick size. Optionally get an estimated cost of materials by adding the price per brick.

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How to Estimate How Many Bricks Are Needed For a Project

Bricks are a versatile building material that are relatively small and are best suited for exterior walls, chimneys, and fireplaces. Many bricks have 3 or more holes in the center to reduce the weight, raw materials, and cost.

Bricks are commonly made of clay or shale and are kiln baked. Bricks are often laid in courses or rows, and are held in position by laying them in a bed of mortar and filling all of the joints with mortar.

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Estimating the quantity of bricks needed can be done with the calculator provided. You can enter the dimensions of your wall or surface and choose the type of brick you’re using and the calculator will estimate the material you’ll need.

The type of brick you choose will determine the number of bricks you need for a wall or chimney because each type of brick is a slightly different size. The thickness of the mortar bed you use can also vary your material needs. This calculator assumes a 3⁄8” mortar bed.

Calculating the Number of Bricks Needed

A wall built with a standard modular brick will require 7 bricks per square foot to complete the project. Projects using different brick sizes will require a different amount. Follow the steps below for an accurate estimate.

Find Square Footage of the Wall

The first thing you need to do to estimate the number of bricks you’ll need is to determine the area that needs to be covered, in ft2. To do this, measure the width and height of your wall or surface.

Once you’ve measured the width and height of the wall, you can find the area in square footage by multiplying the width of the wall in feet times the height of the wall in feet. For example, a 10′ wide wall that is 8′ high would be 80 ft2.

Find Square Footage of Each Brick

After you know the area of the surface that you need to brick you need to find the area that each brick will cover. The easiest way to do that is to find the ft2 of each brick and divide by 144 to convert in2 to ft2. Keep in mind that there will also be a 3⁄8” mortar joint between each brick.

For example, a modular brick is 7 5⁄8” wide x 2 1⁄4” high. To get the square footage of a modular brick add 3⁄8” to each dimension to account for the mortar joint, then use the formula (length × width) ÷ 144 = brick ft2.

Find How Many Bricks Fill the Wall

You can determine the number of bricks needed to cover your area by dividing the square footage of the area to be covered by the square footage of the brick (wall ft2 ÷ brick ft2). For example, to find the number of modular bricks to cover the 80 ft2 wall we calculated earlier we would follow the following formula:

80 ÷ .1458 = 549 bricks

We strongly recommend adding 10% additional material to cover any waste and to account for any broken blocks or cuts.

The brick calculator above may return a different number of bricks for your area since it uses a more precise formula, accounting for partial bricks and cutoffs automatically.

Check out our concrete block calculator to find the number of concrete blocks needed for a project. Concrete blocks, or cinder blocks, are larger than bricks but the strategy to find the number of bricks cover a surface can be used to find the number of concrete blocks to cover a surface.

Estimating the Mortar Needed

Estimating mortar can be done by referring to the coverage for the mortar used on the project. Most mortar products require 1 bag of mortar per 100-142 bricks, depending on the size. 1 bag of mortar will be needed for every 142 modular, 125 queen, or 100 utility bricks. This estimate assumes using a mortar that needs to be mixed with 3 parts sand. A 1:3 mortar to sand mix will require 1 yd3 of sand for every 7 bags of mortar.

Standard Brick Sizes

It is important to note that there are many different types of bricks and many different sizes as well. See some of the most common brick types and their sizes below, along with an estimate of how many bricks are needed per ft2.

Brick Style

Size D x H x W

Weight

Bricks per Ft2

Bricks per M2

Modular

3 5⁄8” x 2 1⁄4” x 7 5⁄8”

92mm x 57mm x 194mm

4.2 lbs

7

73

Queen

3 1⁄8” x 2 3⁄4” x 7 5⁄8”

79mm x 70mm x 194mm

4.1 lbs

6

73

Closure

3 5⁄8” x 3 5⁄8” x 7 5⁄8”

92mm x 92mm x 194mm

6.8 lbs

4.5

48

Standard

3 5⁄8” x 2 1⁄4” x 8″

92mm x 57mm x 203mm

4.5 lbs

6.5

70

Jumbo Standard

3 5⁄8” x 2 3⁄4” x 8″

92mm x 70mm x 203mm

5.9 lbs

6

61

King

2 3⁄4” x 2 5⁄8” x 9 5⁄8”

79mm x 70mm x 244mm

5.6 lbs

4.5

49

Roman

3 5⁄8” x 1 5⁄8” x 11 5⁄8”

92mm x 41mm x 295mm

4.7 lbs

6

64

Norman

3 5⁄8” x 2 1⁄4” x 11 5⁄8”

92mm x 57mm x 295mm

6.4 lbs

4.5

49

Utility

3 5⁄8” x 3 5⁄8” x 11 5⁄8”

92mm x 92mm x 295mm

10.2 lbs

3

32

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